


Redemption

by YaoiAnimeHunter



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-16
Updated: 2015-03-16
Packaged: 2018-03-18 04:01:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3555302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YaoiAnimeHunter/pseuds/YaoiAnimeHunter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mafia Au! Byakuran plans to destroy the Vongola family as well as take their rings to build a weapon capable of creating artificial life forms. The Varia and CEDEF have been asked by Nono and Lemitsu to stop Byakuran. The chances of their survival is slim to none and the worst part is that no one understands how the weapon works... except for Squalo's half brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

This is a KHR Mafia AU fic, there are a few changes such as:

· Xanxus is the Varia leader but is next in line to be the Vongola tenth boss

· Squalo and Gokudera are half brothers (Same mother)

· This fic is an XS and 1859 Fic (My one true pairing, I'm loyal and biased (^_~)

· Gokudera would not follow Tsuna like a love sick puppy EVER! He actually considers Tsuna a wimp.

· Chrome is not in this fic, Mukuro is instead.

· Hibari is the Varia Cloud guardian

There were few things that Made Xanxus angry… scratch that, he was always angry (Squalo can testify to that) but this was different, he was damn right murderous and the aura around him alone could kill. That scum Byakuran was underestimating Xanxus and the Varia leader would be damned if he let that trash win.

Byakuran had openly told the Vongola that he was going to take their rings, the Arcobaleno's pacifiers as well as destroy the Vongola and rumor had it that the Millefiore boss was currently building a weapon of mass destruction. The ninth had told Xanxus to handle the matter, as he was going to be the next Vongola boss and it would be an opportunity to show him his leadership skills. Also Lemitsu had told his son Tsunayoshi to join them on the mission as he would be the next CEDEF leader.

So here they were in the Varia mansion, having a meeting to discuss the latest threat to Vongola, the Varia, Reborn, and three kids (In Xanxus words) trying to figure out what to do.

"Oi, trash who are those?" Xanxus asked Tsuna pointing to two males next to him. Tsuna scratched his head nervously and replied "Ano, this is Yamamoto Takeshi, he's our Negotiator, and he is good with swords." Squalo looked at the one Tsuna had called Yamamoto, the kid had a big grin on his face, and Squalo couldn't picture the brat with a sword, he looked too innocent.

"Voii, can you really fight with a sword." Yamamoto replied by laughing cheerily, and for some reason that ticked off Squalo. Tsuna continued his introduction and introduced a tall blue haired guy with a weird hairstyle.

"This is Rokudo Mukuro, he our other negotiator, he's an expert illusionist." The Mukuro guy interested Xanxus and Squalo, but for some weird reason Hibari hated the guy, perhaps it was the creepy smile on his face, the pineapple hairstyle or his general dislike for illusionists, either way something about the Mukuro guy made Hibari want to bite him to death.

After all the introductions the meeting began, Reborn started the meeting "Byakuran is building a weapon that completely absorbs all dying will flames, how exactly it's done, we have no idea but a reliable source says he's creating a device that uses dying wills and some deadly highly radioactive materials, which creates artificial life forms such as animals and humans, the device apparently can also be used to make specially advanced military grade weapons."

"HIEE, how is that possible."

"Dame-Tsuna, anything is possible, the issue is how to fight against him if the rumors are true, it would be almost impossible to fight as the artificial animals gives of a shockwave strong enough to destroy a building. The Vongola has never dealt with anything of this scale before." Reborn brought out some files, with information and blue print about the new weapon, each person in the room was given a copy. Lussuria read the file and with each page his smile faltered, his face turned sickly pale. If this information was true, then the Vongola had almost no chance of winning, the only people who didn't look disturbed by the information were Xanxus, Squalo and Hibari.

The file contained some information Squalo couldn't make out, it was filled with drawings and formulas of all sort, he was by no means stupid, but this was beyond him, there was only one person he knew that would understand all this scientific stuff, just thinking of calling the brat gave him a headache. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice Reborn staring at him.

"Squalo, you seem to be thinking of something, do you have an idea of how we can destroy this thing?"

-0-

There was another meeting, to discuss the same thing as last time- Byakuran's new weapon, the same people were present although this time Collonello and Giannini were present, the meeting was interrupted with the doors banged open, and a very angry guy with slightly long silver hair stormed in, looking as if he wanted to murder everyone in the room. The intruder had a small bag that made Tsuna suddenly shiver.

"VOII, You shitty brat, you're late."

"Like hell, you fucking ruined my plans, why the fuck am I here anyway?" Xanxus smirked, he had never personally met Squalo's brother but he had done his research on the guy and Squalo talked about him a lot (Only to him of course, very few people knew the Varia strategy captain had a brother), the younger silverette had the same behavior as Squalo a decade ago, it was amusing watching the two silverette insult each other, it was their way of showing affection.

"VOII, this is more important?"

"Che, it better be." The rest of the audience watched the young male who just spoke to Squalo like that in astonishment, Squalo didn't even slice him up or make any attempt to hurt the foul mouthed intruder it was almost friendly. The Varia strategy commander got one of the file and threw it at the other silverette who caught it mid-air, opened it and read the content. His mood changed from angry to serious immediately, he dropped the bag he was carrying on the floor.

"Is this shit real? I heard about the rumors but I didn't think it was true." Squalo's lack of response meant it was true. "This shit shouldn't even exist. Fuck this is bad, a device like this would probably be supervised by the government; Italy doesn't even have the resources do build something like this. " His comment shocked everyone, as no one knew if the weapon was real as well as how to destroy it. Reborn broke the silence.

"Gokudera Hayato"

"Reb… before he could finish the word a book was thrown at him with a force strong enough to knock him down." He stood up and turned to the person who threw the book and was face to face with a blue eyed blond arcobaleno with a gun fetish. "Oi, the fuck, did I do this time."

"Is that how you greet me- Kora? You still owe me a gift from last time."

"Che, I got your gift here." He hand the bag he had dropped on the floor earlier to Collonello, who opened it and smiled. Colonello's smile made Tsuna move a few inches away from him.

"Ano, Gokudera-kun. Who are you." Gokudera glared at Tsuna who cowered in fear, the silverette muttered a silent 'wimp'. Xanxus smirked at this, he was seriously starting to like this guy, luckily for Tsuna, Reborn answered the question."

"Gokudera Hayato, Hacker and International thief, wanted in 9 countries, Younger brother of Squalo." Everyone (Except the Arcobaleno's, Hibari and Mukuro) gasped in surprise, that answered why Squalo didn't slice the guy, as well as why Xanxus didn't shoot him.

"Kufufu, so you are the Gokudera Hayato, I'm a fan." Gokudera smiled, something about the blue haired guy, gave him the creeps but he'd be damned if he let it show.

"That still doesn't explain how you know about the device." Giannini didn't like the guy, he had heard some things about Gokudera and none was good.

"Shut it fatty." Xanxus smiled, Gokudera was definitely Squalo's brother, they were so alike. Gokudera sat down and read the rest of the file. "Shit, destroying this isn't going to be easy, apart from dealing with the shockwaves, you'd end up with radiation poisoning if you are within 3 meters of it."

"So you're saying it impossible- Kora?"

"I didn't say that either, the first thing is to find out where it is, because it is definitely not in this warehouse."

"It's not?"

"Fuck no, it has to be in a place at least 10 miles away from people or building, preferably underground, the device is highly unstable, and can easily explode if the right conditions are not met, it also has to be supervised constantly and the experiments has to be done in a spacious and restrained place in case the animals go out of control. This shit is probably in a secure high tech factory, it doesn't look finished though, that doesn't mean it doesn't work, if the notes here are correct then it would work but it wouldn't be stable, a warehouse wouldn't be a good place for this."

"Are you sure? I mean it might not be the safest environment but there could be a possibility." Tsuna asked, his previous timidity replaced with seriousness, Gokudera laughed dryly.

"Have you ever been exposed to Xephyl radiation, you die within ten minutes if you're lucky." Tsuna winced. "Even a little exposure to Xephyl can make your heart shut down in an hour, putting this much in a warehouse is suicide." Tsuna turned green, he was starting to consider backing out of this mission, it was too dangerous and way too risky. The room was silent, everyone absorbing the news. Gokudera decided to ease the tension."

"But with the right protective gear and a few shots you should be immune to the radiation for about two hours give or take." Okay, Tsuna knew the silverette was trying to cheer them up, but being told you would have two hours before your heart shuts down was not the most uplifting news.

"What about the shockwaves -Kora?

"Spanner and Shoichi should be able to make a suit that would withstand the shockwaves. We need to find out where it is before we can plan on destroying or stealing…"

"VOIII, you are not stealing this shit!"

"The fuck! Why not?" The Varia guardians and the Arcobaleno watched the siblings arguing with an amused smile.

"VOII, I'll hand your ass over to those German bastards if you steal this shit."

"Cmon, it worth almost a hundred million, and its not even complete yet." Everyone's eyes widened in surprise.

"The fuck!"

Xanxus was amused, Gokudera was like a younger version of Squalo, Giannini had tried to argue with him but the hacker had explicitly told the Vongola engineer he would put him in a cage and ship him to México, and then started calculating how much he could make from his organs, needless to say Giannini was silent till the meeting ended.

Tsuna definitely did not like Squalo's brother, Squalo was crazy enough adding a younger version of him to the mix was hell, Gokudera kept calling him 'wimp' and replying with 'Aye, Aye Princess' which annoyed Tsuna, although Tsuna had to admit the hacker was terrifyingly intelligent and his help was needed in fighting Byakuran, he had noticed the barely concealed pride in Squalo's eyes when Gokudera was explaining how the device functioned, despite the siblings arguments.

Hibari disliked Gokudera the moment he stormed into the meeting; the younger silverette was loud, annoying and looked weak, When Reborn said he was a Hacker and a Thief, the dislike turned to extreme irritation. But when Gokudera began to explaining how the device worked, he could see the intelligence in the man; he assumed that the silverette wasn't completely useless after all. When Gokudera called the CEDEF herbivore 'princess', or threatened to ship the pathetic engineer and sell his organs, Hibari was amused. At the end of the meeting Hibari concluded that Squalo's younger brother was an interesting guy.

Lussuria, liked Gokudera from the moment he walked in, he was young, sexy and had beautiful tattoos, he was even more excited when Reborn said he was THE Gokudera Hayato – the famous Hacker and international thief, unfortunately that excited died when Reborn added that he was Squalo's younger brother. When Gokudera snapped and threatened Giannini, Lussuria saw the similarities between the two brothers, He wasn't going to give up though, after all it wasn't everyday one found a sexy, smart, famous guy and single (He wasn't sure of that one yet, but even if he wasn't Lussuria wasn't one to give up easily)

Gokudera was excited to meet his brother; it had been almost a year since they saw each other, even though they talked to each other occasionally. He was wanted in Italy and his brother's position in the Varia was technically one of the reasons he couldn't be arrested here, still he had planned to rob a bank but the pilot had refused to drop him where he wanted, even when he threatened the bastard he still didn't budge, so now here he was dropped in the Varia mansion against his will thanks to Squalo.

His anger died when Squalo threw a folder at him, and the contents of the folder shocked the crap out of him, who the fuck wanted to build something like this?! The person in charge of this was either psychotic or suicidal, or probably both.

He took a minute to study the rest of the people in the meeting, he already knew the Arcobalenos and Xanxus; the pineapple haired guy creeped him out, the smiling guy was cute but seemed to ooze stupidity, the blonde guy wearing a tiara was probably gender confused with a weird laughter - shishishi? the mustache guy with umbrellas behind him was fucking ugly, the gothic looking baby was probably an Arcobaleno, nothing seemed wrong with him/her, the guy wearing sunglasses indoors with a ridiculous flamboyant hairstyle looked crazy as fuck, for some reason he felt as if the crazy guy was ogling him, he felt a chill run down his spine at that thought, The raven haired guy with the frown was hot though and was probably only a couple years older than him.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a few days since Gokudera arrived and immediately after the last meeting he had began to do some research on the weapon because Gokudera had to admit whoever this Byakuran guy was, he definitely had good taste in weapons and he would kill to meet the guy and maybe have a few drinks together. In his opinion anyone who could think of such a weapon had must be freaking amazing.

Sadly since he was on the other side of the fight, and was against the Byakuran guy he had to settle for defeating the brilliant bastard. For some reason he kept forgetting to find out who this Byakuran guy was or at least get a picture of the badass who got Xanxus panties in a twist: Another reason he liked the guy – he managed to turn Xanxus to a whiny, angry and frustrated woman.

-0-

Hibari had observed the younger silverette, Gokudera was loud, brash and irritating but there was something about him that drew the raven's interest, perhaps it was the way his slender fingers worked on some formulas or the way, his green eyes sparkled with excitement when he was arguing with his brother, or maybe it was the way he ran his fingers through his hair when frustrated, or the way he bit his soft lips…. He seriously had to stop thinking in that direction, he had always considered himself asexual, okay he had had sex before but he had never been fascinated with someone on this scale and frankly he didn't know what to do, it would have been easier if he could just beat up the younger silverette with his tonfas but something told him that it wasn't a good idea.

Bel really didn't like Gokudera, there was no need for two geniuses (Not that Gokudera was a genius) and he was more than enough to fill that role, ever since Gokudera arrived, everyone had talked about him and Bel hated all the attention the silverette was getting. To the Varia storm guardian, Gokudera was just a copy of Squalo. He really didn't see what was so special about the squalo-copy, He had tried throwing his knives at the younger silverette but for some reason Gokudera kept evading his attacks, even without seeing it coming.

-0-

Gokudera had found yet another flower on his bed, and he really didn't know who was putting them there, whoever it was left no notes or anything. The hacker wasn't a fan of flowers, and frankly he hated them with passion, they reminded him too much of someone he would never like to remember. Yesterday he had received yellow carnation mixed with white arbutus; he had to admit they were pretty even though it was an odd mix.

Today he received White Roses and Wolf's bane, although the mix of blue and white flowers were beautiful he was cautious because he had spent a long time with a flower fanatic to know the blue flower was poisonous. Which made him worry because someone was obviously warning him and as much as he would like to search for the meaning of each flower he had received, he had no time. So he ignored the bunch on his bead and left the room, telling the nearest maid to get rid of the flower as well as warning her that the blue flower was poisonous.

* * *

Much to his surprise Gokudera hadn't been able to get much information about where the device was, who was supervising it or even what country the god damned weapon was. He had nothing, Zero, Zilch, Nada! This was the first time he had ever had no lead on a case and it was frustrating the silverette. His last resort was to see an ally: although calling the bastard an ally left a bitter taste in his mouth and made him want to shoot himself, although he may or may not be turned on at the thought of seeing the said bastard.

Kikyo was also an international thief like him although the gorgeous man ( Yes he wasn't blind, the man was sexy as fuck and Gokudera may or may not have slept with him before, and the bastard may or may not have given him the best sex he had ever had, but that was besides the point) didn't work alone like Gokudera, he was part of a well-known group who did everything from robbing banks, breaking into highly secured government vault to assassination. And as much as he hated to admit it, if there was someone who could get some information on the Byakuran guy it was Kikyo.

Asking Kikyo for a favor was the equivalent of signing a death wish with a sexy mouth-watering demon, but the two had a weird and dysfunctional relationship, they were enemies and rivals with benefits! And Gokudera knew if he wanted to get some information about this Byakuran guy he would have to swallow his pride buy the best liquor he could find and then consult the beautiful male.

-0-

A week after the last meeting, another meeting was held, to discuss the discoveries they had been able to find on Byakuran's new weapon.

"I talked to Spanner and Shoichi and they can make a protective suit that could withstand the shock waves and radiation. As per the device it would seem the Italian Government doesn't know of its existence." Yamamoto was confused, he wondered how Gokudera knew what the Italian Government were up to. Sadly he decided to ease his curiosity.

"Um... Gokudera, how do you know the Italian Government doesn't know about the device?" His question was answered by a deadly glare from both Gokudera and Squalo, while Tsuna gave him a look that said 'Trust me, you don't want to know.'

"Byakuran is probably working with either the German or Russian Military, Xephyl has been banned in Germany after the Schweihs incident, though but he could easily get some in the black market, As per Russia, a weapon like this would give them a major advantage." He paused for dramatic effect. "It would be easier and much more convenient to build the weapon here though; as he has the power to make the government turn a blind eye to his dealings. Shoichi also said that a year ago, one of the major companies producing weapons experimented with some radioactive material to create an artificial life, the experiment was a failure and he labs were shut down, a few months after the shutdown of the project, the a large shipping container supposedly containing unprocessed Xephyl and Polonium along with the research documents of the experiments went missing from the factory, the container was found empty a few months later in the Germany-Poland border." The other members in the meeting looked at Gokudera in shock, all wondering if Byakuran had anything to do with the highly radioactive materials.

"Voii, do you think Byakuran is somehow connected to the missing materials?"

"There is no conclusive evidence to that, but that would be the best way for him to get the radioactive materials as well as access important details on the experiment, which would help him in building his weapon." Seriously Gokudera was starting to sound proud of Byakuran, which creeped out Tsuna.

The doors suddenly burst open, and one of the servants came running in holding a small package.

"VOIII! What the fuck are you doing?"

"I'm sorry I was told to give this to Gokudera-san immediately." Gokudera's ears perked up at the comment, and all attention was turned to the servant. The hacker walked towards the servant, sent him a questioning look before shrugging and opening he package.

Inside the package was a phone and a card. Gokudera knew the drill. He had received packages like this before so he turned on the phone and found an audio file. without thinking he clicked on the file.

The sugary sweet yet deadly voice belonging to the man he had run away from two years ago, filled the room, Gokudera froze, his eyes were wide with fear and pain.

 _"Haya-chan, I missed you. I heard you are back in Italy, maybe we should go on a dinner date sometime. Oh, Kikyo told me you were trying to get some information about me, well that isn't very nice, you could always ask me directly. You know Haya-chan, I would never hurt you, but you ignored all the warnings I've sent to you, it wasn't very easy to send you those flowers you know."_  The sweet voice turned deadly _"Haya-chan you should back out while you can, I wouldn't want to hurt you, and if you do I promise not to hurt your brother."_

Gokudera dropped the phone in shock, the sound filled the dead silent room, Panic clear on some of their faces, Hibari was holding his Tonfa's out ready for an attack, Mukuro held his trident taking a fighting stance, Yamamoto had taken out his sword ready to fight. The two silverette's were frozen, One in shock and fear the other in barely restrained anger still processing the obvious threat to him. The card included in the package was floating on the air slowing falling towards the floor, Squalo snapped out of his trance and caught the card before it landed on the ground, he read the message slowly, his eyes widened in shock and annoyance.

I hope you listened to my message. Join me and i would not touch your brother, I can't say the same for the others though.

PS: I've missed you.

Your Eternal Love.

XOXO


	3. Chapter 3

****CHAPTER THREE** **

**Pairings in this Chapter** :  _Implied Byakuran x Gokudera & Xanxus x Squalo_

Gokudera walked out of the room with Squalo closely behind him, he couldn't believe that Byakuya was  _'him'_  he should have known it was him, a devices like this was something  _'Ghost'_  was capable of. He felt utterly helpless and stupid; to think he could get away from  _'him'_ , the last thing he wanted was to drag Squalo into his own problem.

"So are you gonna tell me what the fuck was that." Gokudera had expected his brother to yell at him, curse or something, he didn't expect Squalo to be calm about this and to be honest a calm Squalo was worse than a loud Squalo.

"I don't even know what to say." It was the truth, Gokudera didn't think it was wise to blurt out that his psychotic ex-husband was out to get him, and he definitely wasn't going to mention that their marriage was both non-consensual and still in the process of being dissolved. He definitely couldn't tell Squalo that he would have to back off from their mission as it would be way too risky for him.

"VOII, don't give me that shit! The fucking bastard is threatening you, and somehow I'm involved in this shit. I know what the scum is capable of; I fucking deserve to know what's going on."

"You think I don't know this shit? You think I wanted to drag you into my problems? Fuck I thought I escaped him, I don't even know how he found me, you think I fucking want this?" his breathing was raspy and erratic, his hands were trembling. Squalo sighed.

"Fine, what's your connection with the fucking bastard?"

"A couple of years back, I had this job to steal some documents from some fucking minister's vault; the bastard was planning to create this device that could supposedly create some sort of semi-artificial life. According to the papers, the minister was gay and wanted to create a kid from his and his partner's genes, of course it was a pile of bull the fucking bastard was a womanizing asshole with at least five illegitimate mini-bastards. The program was supposed to be some campaign to support homosexual couples, anyway the only way to gain access was to sign up as one of the couples interested in the program." Gokudera paused for dramatic effect, the gears in Squalo's head turned; the swordsman gave his brother a look that said 'tell me you weren't involved.'

"VOII, don't tell me the trash was your partner." Gokudera's silence was all the answer he needed. "What the fuck were you thinking?"

"Shit I don't know, he wasn't that crazy then, it should have been an easy job, get a fake marriage, sign-up for the shitty program and steal the documents… Fuck I don't even know what I was thinking, after that fucking mission, he kept calling and offering more missions, he wasn't so bad then. I wasn't thinking."

"VOII, explain the marriage shit." Squalo had a feeling there was more to the mission than Gokudera was saying.

"I got a fake ID, and I'm assuming he did the same, our Alias got legally married in some fucking court. The fucking bastard thought the marriage was real." Okay, Gokudera wished he hadn't said the last part because Squalo looked like he was going to explode and take the whole building with him.

"VOOOOIIII, What the fuck! The shitty bastard thinks you're married?" Gokudera nodded somberly. "Shit!" Squalo began pacing around, trying to think of something to get his brother out of his 'marriage'.

"I can't stay here anymore, it's too risky." Squalo turned really slowly and stared at Gokudera in disbelief. He really couldn't believe the crap the brat was saying.

"And where the fuck would you go? We can protect you here."

"He fucking left flowers on my bed, I don't think safe applies in this scenario anymore."

"Shit! I'll think of something, your ass isn't going anywhere yet, we have a fucking mission to complete."

"Fuck no!"

"Stop being a fucking coward."

"Fuck you! You did not get stalked for years, you did not have some creep forging marriage documents legally bounding you to him, and some bastard did not track you halfway around the world."

"I'll think of something. And what the fuck are you going to tell them?" He flicked his wrist indicating the meeting room they just stormed out from.

"I have no fucking clue, the last thing I want is them finding out about this shit, can't we tell them some fucking lie?" Squalo glared at him, seconds later the glare softened.

"Fine, you fucking owe me."

-0-

(After Gokudera and Squalo stormed out)

"I knew there was something suspicious about him." Gianinni yelled, his body still trembling in fear. Reborn frowned, Gokudera's involvement with Byakuran while shocking was not entirely unexpected, what was unexpected was Squalo's involvement. Byakuran was obviously using Squalo to get to Gokudera. He briefly wondered if Gokudera was playing with them from the start, he cleared the thought because the younger silverette was obviously shaken by Byakuran's message and Squalo was visibly enraged. Still Gokudera was the only one with information about the weapon and Byakuran was obviously trying to get the younger silverette on his side, and the Arcobaleno couldn't allow that. Gokudera was their only chance at defeating Byakuran.

Xanxus shot at the trembling engineer, purposely missing Gianinni's head, all attention turned to the Varia leader. "The brat didn't know about the Millifiore Scum." Xanxus declared with absolute certainty, to be honest he had his doubts about Gokudera, but Squalo trusted him and if there was one person Xanxus trusted with his life it was Squalo.

Tsuna was deep in thought, even though Gokudera still scared him, he considered himself a good judge of character, and to him Gokudera wasn't a bad guy. The silverette was obviously being threatened, and Byakuran was obviously trying to get him on his side, the best way to do that would be to scare Gokudera and from what happened earlier he could see that Gokudera was definitely scared. He was interrupted from his musing when the doors slammed opened and the two silverette walked in, Gokudera was more composed, and Tsuna hoped the silverette wasn't going to leave them for Byakuran.

All eyes watched the two silverette cautiously; most eyes were on Gokudera the silverette in question glared right back at them. The first to break the silence was Bel.

"Shisishi, the Prince knew you weren't to be trusted."

"VOIII, shut up! We have more important things to discuss; the fucking bastard has already infiltrated the fucking mansion." Xanxus frowned. Vongola's security was top-notch, it was almost impossible to simply infiltrate the mansion, there was obviously a spy and Xanxus knew Squalo long enough to read between the lines, his silverette was accusing someone of double-crossing the Vongola and that somebody wasn't his brother.

"And how do we know, Gokudera isn't involved." This time it was Reborn who spoke.

"Tch, what the fuck would I gain from it? I'm not narcissistic enough to send myself flowers much less poisonous ones."

"Ano, Gokudera-kun, what does Byakuran want with you and Squalo?" Squalo looked at Tsuna like he had grown two heads, the answer was obvious. They had all heard Byakuran's message.

"The fucking scum wants the brat to join him; the bastard is using me to threaten him."

"Look, Can we just forget the whole message thing and continue the fucking meeting." Gokudera blurted out exasperatedly, he didn't want to continue discussing where his loyalties lie and he was sure if the conversation continued they were going to ask about his connection to Byakuran and the last thing he wanted was for them to know about that. Hibari raised an eyebrow at Gokudera's behavior, the silverette had been defensive since he came back into the meeting room, and Hibari had a feeling Gokudera's connection with Byakuran was more than he was letting on, he also got the feeling Squalo was covering for his brother, the cloud was determined to find out Gokudera and Squalo's connection to Byakuran. Hibari was also sure he wasn't the only one who had the same thought; he was going to drop the subject for now.

-0-

Squalo laid on his bed, sleep had evaded him and to be honest he wasn't comfortable enough to sleep, they had done a sweep of the mansion and came up with nothing, there were no bugs or any form of spying device, the background check on all the servants and workers in the mansion came up clean, something was seriously wrong. He trusted Gokudera despite their fights and bickering and he knew Gokudera wasn't on Byakuran's side, he also knew the others were suspicious of his brother. He supposed he could tell them about the whole marriage thing and clear their doubts, but he had promised the brat he wouldn't do that and he was a man of his word. He also had to come up with a way to protect Gokudera from Byakuran and to be honest Squalo wasn't sure he could do that… that itself was a frightening thought, it made him feel useless that he couldn't protect his brother, it made him feel inadequate that some bastard was able to infiltrate the mansion without leaving a trace. The door opened, Squalo didn't bother turning to who see it was, there was only one person who would come to his room without knocking.

"Trash, you owe me some explaining." Squalo sighed and scooted to the side to create some space for Xanxus, note that he needed to, the bed was big enough to fit four people.

"I know." His voice was soft and resigned, Xanxus climbed into the bed, and stroked his lovers hair affectionately

"We could do another sweep; we could find something this time."

"He isn't involved in the bastards plan."

"I know." Xanxus murmured softly into Squalo's hair, before giving his lover a kiss on his forehead.


End file.
